Part One

[Trueman's flat]

(An astrologer is giving a reading to a client in his attic rooms.)

TRUEMAN: Mars will enter Capricorn on the seventeenth, but beware, Mercury is moving retrograde through Scorpio, which can mean only one thing. A vital letter will be lost in the post.
CHERYL: I'll look out for that. Can you see anything else? What if I do go ahead and leave the carpet shop? Will I find another job?
TRUEMAN: Yes. Saturn signifies a new occupation in communications. I see a call centre.
CHERYL: With better money?
TRUEMAN: Jupiter, the planet of abundance, is traversing the fifth house. There will be better money for all those born under the sign of Gemini.
CHERYL: Fantastic. Oh, for both of us. You're Gemini too, aren't you?
TRUEMAN: Sign of the twins. Two faces. That's this session over, Cheryl.
CHERYL: Thanks. You're brilliant, Martin. My husband says I'm mad coming to see you. He says none of your predictions come true. Like when I was going to win that holiday, we were going to move to Scotland. But I told him, the stars work in mysterious ways.
TRUEMAN: They do indeed.
CHERYL: I said, So what if we fall behind on the mortgage this month. Martin is worth every penny.
TRUEMAN: No, no, stop. Cheryl, I can't take your mortgage money.
CHERYL: What?
TRUEMAN: I'm a fraud.
CHERYL: Say again?
TRUEMAN: I won't take your money because I was just making it all up. There's no power in the stars. Please, please. I can't take the money.
CHERYL: I can't believe I'm hearing this. The stars guide everything we do.
TRUEMAN: Do you think anything up there has any influence down here, on you and me? Do you really believe there is such a thing as destiny?

(A fireball streaks through space.)