A Fool's Journey: Book II, The High Priestess

A year ago, 17-year old Benjamin Porter, was in a knife fight defending his biker friend, Craig Marse.

Tonight he’s sitting in an aisle seat with his voluptuous girlfriend Joan Ponti watching Romeo fight Tybalt in a duel.

Joan is an actor (“Don’t call me an actress; I’ll kick your ass.”) from another high school who works with Ben at the local movie theater. Where Ben sees a vivacious girl free of judgment, Joan sees an attractive, naive male ingénue who is ripe for manipulation. Joan’s flattery encourages Ben to gradually drop all his adolescent guards and expose his vulnerabilities, insecurities, and foibles.

But Joan reveals and exploits all of Ben’s flaws for her gain, hoping to control and change his journey. He embraces the world of Joan Ponti and her thespian friends as a way to learn about and express himself. But he discovers Joan and Craig may be different sides of the same coin. The drama created on stage is nothing like the intrigue created in Joan’s duplicitous world that may turn tragic.

A Fool’s Journey is a 21-part series of novelettes inspired by The Fool and his journey through the twenty-one Major Arcana of the Tarot. Follow Benjamin Porter, from 15 to 28 (1975 to 1988), in the first seven novelettes—and the first part of the trilogy—where he explores the sensual, physical facets of contemporary American life. The High Priestess is the second in the series, and Ben’s second lesson is about trust, in others and in himself.