The Fortune Cookie Prophecy
by Don Buehner
There is no surprise more magical than the surprise of being loved;
it is God's finger on man's shoulder.
--Charles Morgan
I was married three times before I was seven years old.
My older brother Gary performed the ceremonies in our basement.
Gary was good at entertaining the family and neighborhood kids with
his creative ideas. Since I was the youngest boy in our group, I
was often on the receiving end of his creativity.
What I remember most about those weddings is that all the girls
were at least five years older than I was, and they all had
beautiful eyes that sparkled when they laughed. Those weddings
taught me to imagine what it would be like to find my soul mate one
day and to be sure that I would know her by her beautiful
eyes.
Puberty hit me late. I was still afraid of the opposite sex when I
was fifteen, and yet I prayed every night for the girl I would
marry. I asked God to help her do well in school and to be happy
and full of energy-wherever and whoever she was.
I first kissed a girl when I was twenty-one. From that time
forward, I dated many beautiful and talented young ladies,
searching for the girl I had prayed for in my youth and still
certain that I would know her by her eyes.
One day, my phone rang. "Don," it was my mother. "You know I told
you about the Addisons, who moved in next door to us. Well, Clara
Addison keeps asking me to invite you over for cards some
night."
"Sorry, Mom, I've got a date that night."
"How could you? I haven't even told you what night it is?" my
mother responded with exasperation.
"It doesn't matter when. I'm sure the Addisons are nice people, but
I'm not going to waste an evening socializing with people who don't
have any eligible daughters."
That's how stubborn I was-I was positive that there was no reason
for me to go to visit the Addisons.
Years passed. I was twenty-six, and my friends were getting nervous
about my prospects. They kept lining up blind dates for me. Many of
these dates were fiascoes, and they were interfering with my social
life. So I made up a few rules about blind dates:
1. No dates recommended by my mother (moms don't understand the
sex-appeal factor).
2. No dates recommended by a female (they're too easy on each
other).
3. No dates recommended by a single guy friend (if she's so
awesome, how come he hasn't asked her out?).
In three simple steps, I eliminated 90 percent of all my blind
dates, including one recommended by my old friend Karen. She called
one evening to tell me that she had become good friends with a
beautiful girl who reminded her of me. She said she knew we would
hit it off. "Sorry," I said, "you're ruled out by rule number
two."
"Don," she said, "You're crazy, and your silly rules are
eliminating the girl you've been waiting for. But have it your way.
Just take her name and phone number, and when you change your mind,
call her."
To get Karen to stop bothering me about it, I said I would. The
girl's name was Susan Maready. I never called her.
Just a couple of weeks later, I ran into my old buddy Ted in the
university cafeteria. "Ted," I said. "You look like you're walking
on air."
"Can you see stars under my feet?" he said, laughing. "The fact is,
I just got engaged last night."
"Hey, congratulations!"
"Yeah," he said, "at thirty-two, I was beginning to wonder if any
woman was going to have me." He pulled his wallet out of his
pocket. "Here," he said, suddenly serious, "look at this.
It was a thin strip of paper from a fortune cookie. "You will be
married within a year," it said.
"That's wild," I said. "They usually say something that would fit
anyone, like 'You have a magnetic personality. They were really
taking a chance with that one."
"No kidding," he said. "And look at me now."
A few weeks later, my roommate Charlie and I were eating dinner at
a Chinese restaurant. I shared this story about Ted's fortune
cookie prediction, and his subsequent engagement. Just then, the
waiter brought over our postmeal fortune cookies. Charlie laughed
at the coincidence as we opened our cookies. Mine said, "You have a
magnetic personality." His said, "You or a close friend will be
married within a year." A chill ran up my spine. This was really
strange. Something told me to ask Charlie if I could keep his
fortune, and he handed it to me with a smile.
Not long afterward, my classmate Brian said he wanted to introduce
me to a young woman named Susan Maready. I was sure I'd heard that
name before, but couldn't remember how or where. Since Brian was
married, and therefore I wouldn't be breaking my "rules" about
being fixed up by single guys, I accepted his offer to meet
Susan.
Susan and I spoke on the phone, and planned a bike ride and a
cookout. Then, the meeting-and as soon as I saw her, my heart
started beating hard and wouldn't stop. Her large green eyes did
something to me I couldn't explain. But somewhere in me, I knew
that it was love at first sight.
After that wonderful evening, I remembered that this hadn't been
the first time someone tried to fix me up with Susan. It all came
back to me. Her name had been popping up all over the place for a
long time. So the next time I had a chance to talk to Brian alone,
I asked him about it.
He squirmed and tried to change the subject.
"What is it, Brian?" I asked.
"You'll have to ask Susan," was all he'd say.
So I did.
"I was going to tell you," she said. "I was going to tell
you.
"Come on, Susan," I said. "Tell me what? I can't stand the
suspense."
"I've been in love with you for years," she said, "since the first
time I saw you from the Addisons' living room window. Yes-it was me
they wanted you to meet. But you wouldn't let anyone introduce us.
You wouldn't let the Addisons set us up; you wouldn't take Karen's
word for it that we would like each other. I thought I was never
going to meet you."
My heart swelled with love, and I laughed at myself. "Karen was
right," I said. "My rules were crazy."
"You're not mad?" she asked.
"Are you kidding?" I said. "I'm impressed. I've got only one rule
for blind dating now."
She gave me a strange look. "What's that?"
"Never again," I said and kissed her.
We were married seven months later.
Susan and I are convinced that we are true soul mates. When I was
fifteen and praying for my future wife, she was fourteen and
praying for her future husband.
After we had been married a couple of months, Susan said to me, "Do
you want to hear something really strange?"
"Sure," I said. "I love to hear strange things."
"Well, about ten months ago, before I'd met you, my friends and I
were at this Chinese restaurant, andÂ…" She pulled a slip of paper
from a fortune cookie out of her wallet:
"You will be married within a yearÂ…."
