Insane giggling from the living room woke me up the other night from one of the most pleasant dreams I've had in months. I was less than pleased. Quietly, I slipped out of bed and cracked the bedroom door, knowing that it had to be my absentee Muse come back to haunt and taunt me again.

"You've really outdone yourself, this time!" I heard the Muse exclaim as it burst out into a fresh giggling fit. "She's a mess! I haven't seen her in such a state in years!"

A low chuckle was the reply.

The Muse wasn't alone? What the hell?!?

Not only does the damn thing see fit to come and go as It pleases, but now It had brought a stranger into my home! I clenched my teeth, restraining myself from bursting into the room and interrupting Its private little party. I wanted to know just who it was that the Muse had brought home.

"I'm so glad you're pleased," a languid voice purred. "I couldn't be happier with the situation, myself. I daresay I've done an excellent job."

"Oh yes!" the Muse quickly agreed. "A positively lovely job, my dear. Tell me, what inspired you? However did you come up with such a devious scenario?"

"It was easy, really," came the rather nonchalant sounding reply from the Muse's guest. "She set herself up for it. Walked right into it, I might add. I just tightened a few strings and let the cards fall, so to speak. She really is an easy mark."

At this, the Muse squealed in delight. "Isn't she just? I love to push her buttons. She's incredibly and impulsively emotional. It's so exciting!"

The stranger chuckled some more, and I heard the clink of a glass being set down on the coffee table. I opened the door a little wider and peeked out hoping to catch a glimpse of the visitor that my Muse was entertaining. Or rather, the visitor that was entertaining my Muse, apparently at my expense.

Candlelight flickered in the living room, casting shadows back towards my bedroom door and playing tricks with my eyes. I could see the Muse sitting on the floor in front of the coffee table, but the stranger was sitting on my couch, back to me, and the light wasn't strong enough to give me more details.

"I think you'll find she's about to become even more exciting," the Muse's guest leaned forward and I heard the sound of cards being shuffled. "Shall we see what happens next, you and I?"

The Muse clapped Its hands together gleefully and nodded enthusiastically. "Oh, yes! Yes, please!"

The stranger laughed again, and the sound of it sent shivers down my back.

Who the hell was sitting on my couch?

"Things are happening," the Muse's visitor intoned mysteriously, laying down a card on the table. "The world is moving, and things are happening of their own accord."

"She thinks too much," the stranger continued, laying down another card, this one crossing the first. Suddenly, I realized that it was my tarot deck that I had heard being shuffled. "She is burdened by her memories of the past and projections of the future. She has wrapped herself in the veil of illusion."

"She wants to be in control of the situation," another card was laid down on the table, swiftly followed by another. "She burns with intense inquiry and seeks answers to her questions."

I stood, frozen in place as the Muse's guest laid my cards out one by one with uncanny accuracy.

"She harbors much guilt for things that have come before. Self-doubt and feelings of worthlessness have kept her from truly finding the answers that she seeks," the figure on the couch shifted slightly, and the Muse leaned forward expectantly, eyes glinting eagerly in the candlelight.

Another card was flipped up and placed with the others, and the Muse began to smile.

"But that's all changing now, isn't it?" my Muse asked impatiently. "She's changing!"

"Yes, she is," the stranger granted. "She is blessed to be entering into a new state of mind. She is awakening anew, and escaping the encumberance of her past. It is a critical time for her, now."

I listened, enthralled. I had never been able to read my own cards, and never had someone given me such a precise reading. Once again, I found myself wondering just who it was that my Muse had brought home.

"She feels trapped by the very questions that she asks so intently," the visitor continued, laying down yet another card. "All of her "what-ifs" are holding her back, keeping her from pushing forward, and continuing on the path that I've laid down for her to follow."

"Well," the Muse giggled again, "you have to admit, you've made things a mite bit difficult for her."

"Yes, I have done that, haven't I?" the stranger replied, sounding amused. Still another card was placed on the table, and the stranger went on, "her awakening is attracting great gifts from the universe. She is finally allowing herself to feel 'at home' with herself, and such self-awareness does not go unrewarded."

"She knows she must let go of what is ended in order to embrace what is to come," the Muse's guest laid another card down. "It has been her greatest desire to do so, and she has mostly succeeded."

I waited, knowing that the final card was about to be drawn, and unsure of what it was that Fate had in store for me. Slowly, I realized that Fate was right there in my living room, entertaining my Muse with my fortune.

"The leap is the thing," Fate finally and cryptically revealed, laying the last card out. "Trust is taking the leap, and having the faith that someone will be there to catch you."

With that, Fate turned and looked directly at me, even though I was still mostly hidden behind my bedroom door.

"You see, my dear," It addressed me, "I am not so cruel as you would like to believe. Where there is a will, there is definately a way."

I nodded my head in dumbfoundment, shut the bedroom door, and went back to bed.

I awoke in the morning to an empty apartment.

I wonder what the Muse has in store for me the next time It comes calling...