Fate will be on your side

“Fate will be on your side” is the fortune-telling machine’s verdict to Jake Adelstein as he waits anxiously to learn whether the Yomiuri Shinbun will hire him. Its prediction links writing to curiosity, and the call he receives after reading it offers an immediate, limited confirmation: he has been invited to a second interview, not yet given the job.

The Forecast

During a period of uncertainty about his future, Adelstein puts 100 yen into a tarot fortune-telling machine at an arcade. He chooses the Jobs category and Madame Tantra as his fortune teller, enters his personal information, and selects cards on a virtual table. The verdict is the upright King of Swords, with success as its result and curiosity as its keyword.

The machine recommends copywriting, editing, or other work involving writing. It says such work calls for literary skill and a certain amount of lowbrow nosiness, then advises him to keep probing for information and nurture his morbid curiosity. Its concluding promise is printed in capitals: “FATE WILL BE ON YOUR SIDE.”

Immediate Confirmation

Adelstein is thrilled by how accurately the reading seems to describe him and keeps the printout. Fortified by the fortune, he takes the last train home and checks his answering machine. There is a message from the Yomiuri Shinbun asking him to attend a second round of interviews.

That sequence makes the expression feel briefly prophetic, but its confirmation is carefully bounded. The call advances Adelstein in a year-long hiring process; it does not settle the outcome. The second interview includes a three-person panel: two judges appear enthusiastic, while the third regards him with apparent dislike. The promise of favorable fate therefore arrives alongside continuing uncertainty about whether he will be accepted.

Meaning in the Narrative

The forecast turns curiosity from a private inclination into a prospective qualification for a writing career. Its advice to keep an antenna out for information anticipates the reporter’s work, while the coincidence of the answering-machine message gives the phrase a moment of narrative force. Yet the uneven interview panel prevents the fortune from functioning as an uncomplicated guarantee: it offers encouragement at a threshold, with the decisive result still unknown.