Course, cheaply dyed hair fell into her face as the computer screen turned blurry. She’d been typing these horoscopes for hours. The only thing to bring her eyes up from the burning artificial light was the sound of the office genitor.
    “Staying late again, Irene?  My, my, you work so hard for such an impractical column.” Her old voice rasped in a dismissive tone, although her eyes held an interested gleam.
    Irene looked over to the old women, a loosely stitched path read ‘Gaia’.
    “Oh you know me, it’s the start of a new month. I’ve got a lot of predictions to make.”
    “Predictions mean nothing.” Gaia said with a huff
    “Well, even if all these c***-and-bull paragraphs don’t come true I’ve got to make a living somehow. Sometime, I even wish they would, come true I mean. I get so many emails saying I was wrong. All I want it to be right. My sign is supposed to be powerful. I have no power at all.”
    She couldn’t believe she said all that. Sure she’d been under stress, but not enough to spill it all to the little old lady no one’s supposed to notice. Irene looked over expecting a snarl. Instead she received a curt smile as the thin-haired women shuffled wherever old-lady custodians shuffle too. In fact, Irene doesn’t think she’s ever seen Gaia actually clean. She’s just sort of there, and the mess is just sort of gone. She couldn’t waste time thinking about cleaning routines though. She had one more monthly prediction to make.
Because the 5th sign (Venus) is in your house this month, ram, you will witness love at     first sight. You and your new found love will go on extravagant dates for three weeks until disaster strikes. On the 15th , you will have great chest pains, a doctor's visit should be assumed. After the 23rd you will have luck in business and money. Be sure to buy extra lottery tickets, and sign big contracts now when the time is right.
    The clock in the corner of her screen is reading 11:17 p.m. She should have been home to feed her cats an hour ago. Who knows what they may have gotten into now. She hurriedly sends in the predication to her boss, a man who doesn't even talk  to her directly, and shuts the computer. There’s a mess of paper everywhere. Pens are scattered just the same. She prefers writing out her predictions first as a sort of rough draft, then typing them out as final. Not like it helps them much anyway. They’ll always be wrong. An ache fills her chest, her mother was right. Even Gaia was right, these are useless predications and she can't do anything right. Her bony hand turn off the table lamp
    After clocking in, Irene finds a note on her desk with an earthly toned pen attached. The rest of the area is  cleared. Gaia must have felt so bad about last night she cleaned for her. A wave of shame washed over Irene and she let her head drop as she sat down. Then she remembered the note and the gift and her heart raced with anticipation. She never gets gifts. She doesn't have anybody to get gifts from.
She opens the little card and reads “The starry vault of heaven is in truth the open book of cosmic projection.”
    Crinckling her eyebrows in confusion, she tacs the square onto her wall and inspects the other gift. The heavy fountain pen makes her hands tingle. Compared to this, her desktop toys look cheaper than normal. She holds it white-knuckled and searches for something else. Thinking, there must be a few clues to whoever left her these. She can’t find anything though, and dumps all her old pens in a draw to make room for her new favourite.
    A few minutes pass until her gaze is drawn away towards a flashing icon. She clicks the envelope to find an email from one of her readers. Panic makes her eyes clench in preparation for the first of many disappointments to come from the newest prediction. Reading on, she finds instead a request for a personal assessment. Occasionally online readers will fill out a birth chart and send it to her in hopes, with the exact sun-moon-stars measurements, she’ll be able to provide an in-depth prediction in any chosen area. She was ecstatic about these “new age”, “personal” predictions in the beginning. Until she found out these customers have the most hateful words when the analysis is proven wrong. Even with all of her doubt she can’t deny one of the few real, paying customers. 
The new pen in hand she begins to write “June 10 brings a lucky Venus/Jupiter trine, reminding you even though you haven’t planned for love at first sight- romance will happen tonight! Loving Venus leaves your practical sign for the unique energy of Aquarius on June 16, so while the prospect of being in love is still attractive, you should go about in a very causal, indirect way. Don't give off mixed signals, although you won’t be able to help yourself mid-month. The Moon hangs in fair-minded Libra on June 25 and June 26, leading you to believe that all relationships should be 50/50. Remember, dear Goat, balance is important but being slightly out of sync isn't a deal breaker.”
The ink shined iredecenstent for a second, before turning a solid black. A shimmering  effect which  happened so fast, Irene quickly blinked the thought away.  She quietly walked over to the office scanner, keeping her head low and praying not to catch anyone's attention. Her ‘co-workers’ never did notice the washer bleached, uncoordinated blues and greys which passed them. Still every time she walked down the row paranoia engulfed her. She was fearful they would ask the questions her mother always threatened they would. Don’t you ever go out? Is there a Mister? Every think you’re maybe gay? Certainly you can’t be that old and still living alone? How many cats did you say you have?
She shook her head, trying to rid it of the nagging voice. Only to notice a hunched over woman winking at her. Making her think, of course Gaia would know who left the gifts. She’s always here before everyone else. Some people even joke she never leaves. After the scanner beeps, signaling the picture has been uploaded to her computer, she walks back down the cubicles. Promising herself she’ll be sure to ask Gaia about the mysterious presents next chance she got.
A month passes, and by now she’s forgotten about her questions altogether.  She’s had more personal requests than ever before. Soon giving her new pen the name of Lucky. Her writing is smoother than ever before and she’s only received minimal complaints on her newspaper predictions. Everytime she receives them, she’s reminded of the first astrological fortune she wrote with Lucky. There’s hasn’t been an update as to how correct her advice was, and usually by now a nasty email has appeared. This leaves Irene wondering if the lady could have been so upset, she didn't even bother complaining.  A knot replaces the warm coffee previously filling her stomach, and she can’t shake the worry as she turns on the computer to find  12 unread emails. The first two are invitations to an upcoming Fourth of July office party, a few more are updates from her boss on the minimum writing requirements she has yet to reach, and she almost missing the one remaining in the rest of the junk. She clicks on the bar titled ‘RE: Jody Baker’s Personal Astrology Reading’. Her eyes swiftly scan the email for profanities, then offensive emojis, then all around negative speech, and find nothing of the sort.
Instead Mrs.Baker wrote “OMG! I cannot believe how correct you where! I followed all of your advice, and I met the most romantic guy! It’s only been a month and we are so in love! He really is amazing...with dreamy eyes and a handsome chest...he’s so beautiful I just have to sigh. Thank you so so much! I told all of my friends about you perfect prediction! They said they would start messaging you soon. One of my besties told me yesterday your fortunes were already coming true. She’s the one with the two-timing backstabber of a boyfriend. Which reminded me to think you! I also wanted to apply for another astrology report for this July, to see if Burt and I will start a committed relationship soon. ;) I hope to hear from you soon! Toodles!
                                    -Jody Baker”
    Irene couldn’t believe what she was reading. She finally got a prediction right. An immense surge of pride made her bony chest swell, and cheeks turn rosy. She hadn’t heard praise directed towards her in so long, she forgot what being accomplished felt like. She forgot what they power of doing something right felt like. An almost too addicting rush flooded her senses as she laid back in her chair, twirling Lucky between her fingers. She basked in the idea of her always being right, and always receiving those kinds of praising replies. Finally she would be able to prove her mother wrong. The thought created a sly smile across her lips, while an urgency to make more predictions made her fingers twitch in anticipation. As she looked over the rows of cubicles, searching for a face which felt as much pride as her, she landed on one with wrinkled cheeks upturned in a smirk. Irene was too caught up in her contentment to notice how Gaia eyes held an intuitive glow. Instead she returned the smirk with an overdue wink, and slid back to her suddenly accurate prophecies.