Listen Free: | Apple Podcasts | Pandora | Spotify |
In this episode of 7MS, Storyteller Aaron Calafato shares an encounter with a "fortune teller" at a Bob Evans that reshaped how he saw his future. At 18, he dismissed her vision that he’d trade rock-and-roll dreams for a life centered on home and family. Years later, over breakfast at the same restaurant, Aaron faces the question: did her vision come true?
*Join Aaron Thursday Evenings for Night Stories LIVE! : A live, audio-first show inspired by classic late-night radio — it features raw reflections, spontaneous storytelling, and unexpected conversations with guests and listeners. Subscribe and hit the notification bell on Aaron’s YouTube Channel to tune in!
*Dive deeper into the 7MS Universe and connect with Aaron on...
The Team:
Story created & performed by: Aaron Calafato
Senior Audio Engineer: Ken Wendt
Additional vocals: Cori Calafato
Art: Pete Whitehead
Original Theme Music: thomas j. duke
Additional Soundscape Design: Isaac Gehring
TRANSCRIPT
Aaron Calafato:
I met a fortune teller in the most unexpected place. It was at a Bob Evans—the restaurant chain. I was working there in my hometown, waiting tables when this fortune teller told me something about my future. I didn’t want to believe it. The question is: did what she say would happen actually come true?
I was eighteen years old, working breakfast shifts, making $2.13 an hour plus tips. The breakfast crowd was tough—cheap meals, strong personalities, and a mountain of condiments on every table. Salt, pepper, jelly, honey, ketchup, mustard, hot sauce, creamers, sugar packets—it was chaos. And in the middle of it all was Kat, who worked the counter. She had big ’80s hair, bright blue eyes, a sharp sense of humor, and a way of handling tough customers with warmth and boundaries. Watching her was like watching a bartender at a breakfast joint—she had credibility, and everyone respected her.
Over time we became friends. One day, I told her about my dream: “The next time you see me, Kat, I’ll be rolling up to this Bob Evans in a tour bus, playing lead guitar in a progressive rock band.” She smiled, but I could see she was holding something back. Finally, she admitted she had a gift. She could see how things might play out—call it psychic, call it intuition. And she told me, “You may do something creative, but you’re not that guy—girlfriends in every city, the rock star life. You’re a guy who loves home. You’re going to be a family man. And your family will be at the center of whatever you do.”
At eighteen, I thought that was the lamest thing I’d ever heard. I brushed it off. That summer I left town, and Kat moved on. I never saw her again.
Fifteen years later, after chasing dreams in New York, going broke, and eventually finding my voice as a storyteller, I came back to northeast Ohio. I realized I loved being here, rooting myself in my hometown, and building a family. And on my first date with my wife, Cori—where did we meet? That same Bob Evans, off I-71 and Route 18.
I remember watching her skip across the parking lot, sitting down over breakfast, and asking if I could finish the rest of her plate. Not long after, we were married, and soon enough, raising our family. Now I live just ten miles from that Bob Evans—living the life Kat had predicted all those years ago.
And though I never saw her again, I wish I could go back to that counter, give her a hug, and say thank you—for seeing the man I’d one day become. But I’m sure this story is nothing new to her. After all, this was just one of many tales from a fortune teller at Bob Evans.
