Cautionary songs

Abstract

Lilly McConnachie, born a Pisces, died under the sign of Cancer. Contrary to what they said at her funeral she never had invested much in horoscopes - newspaper astrology, she often told her granddaughters, was for wimps. Despite this, nobody knew the planets like Lilly did. For seventeen years she had reaped a small fortune, mapping out the futures of almost everybody in the district. Lilly found comfort in solar charts in the same way as she found comfort in her spinning wheel - round, evenly spoked, eternally spiralling. She died with Mercury in the ascendant, which was a good sign. As the sun dipped low behind the window sill of ward eight, a strange vision settled upon her - Lillian M. McConnachie, floating through outer-space, finally slipping into gentle orbit around some far-off moon.