"You will have one child and a long life," Yoda told me as she carefully examined my palm. Well, she could say that about anyone I suppose, I thought to myself.

I arrived in a small side road in Marsascala on a late Wednesday evening to interview renowned fortune teller Yoda. As I walked into a garage with yellow stained walls, a torn couch and a sole rickety chair, chills ran up my spine. The woman who had opened the door just told me 'she will be out soon' and walked off.

Smoke filled the air and on the couch, a girl was huddled prodding away at her phone. Voices of a group of people carried over from a small room in the back.

I paced the length of the garage like a cat on hot bricks, absentmindedly watching the TV in the corner playing Maltese songs until a door swished open and a young woman came out. I realised she was a client and this garage was actually the 'waiting room'.

Then Yoda herself came out and, in what I could only describe as a drawl, asked me to follow her into a small dark room.

The first thing I noticed as I entered the tiny room, no bigger than my en suite bathroom, was a cross hanging from one of the shelves.

A small table, littered with cards, filled up most of the room. You know those creepy films were you see a fortune teller with a crystal ball in front of her. Well, that was pretty much it - sans the crystal ball.

I prepared my laptop to start the interview and I asked her if I could record our conversation, to which she found no objection. Still a bit apprehensive, I tried to start the normal process of an interview but Yoda cut me off and started chattering away.

She remarked that her circulation has become a bit poor and she cannot see people as often as she used to. Her friendly disposition directly contradicted the atmosphere in the room.

Yoda tells me how busy she is though of course, not every day is the same. People often turn up at her door unannounced because they know she will not turn them away.

Her main form of advertisement is people; however, the problem she tells me is when her words are twisted and lies are spread. "The worst thing is when they lie about you. Sometimes people pretend I tell them something or even they lie about coming here."

Even the media like to invent that fortune telling is related to the devil and other negative connotations she says. Anyways "people nowadays no longer believe in these things. I doubt people even have faith in the Church anymore, not God but the Church, especially the new generation."

The devil and spirits have nothing to do with fortune telling. "He would have to have the patience to sit here and listen to all those people and try to show them the right path in life," Yoda tells me with a slight smile, referring to the devil.

According to the Church, consulting a fortune teller is wrong and constitutes a sin she says.

"I believe in God but not the Church, especially after all these scandals." Although she does go to church, sometimes she tries to find a place where she can go in quietly without coming across a lot of people. "I go in for five minutes just to say a quick prayer."

As she chats away, I feel more at ease and we start discussing how her fortune telling started. Yoda explains that her parents were very religious and when she started fortune telling at the age of 12 it was not something they liked her doing.

"A lot of people were against me for doing it, saying it was not something good. In my time there was more fear, because people used to believe a lot more in the devil."

She was even told to go see a priest by her husband's father, which she did out of respect for him. Apparently, the priest did not tell her to stop what she was doing although he did say it was not quite right.

At one point out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of a VAT receipt book on the table. So I asked her if she does this job legitimately to which she surprisingly replied: "I am registered as a fortune teller."

She goes on to say that this is more than just a job and she loves what she does. "I would be lost without it. I have spent my life meeting people and most of the time it is not about fortune telling but counselling. People just want someone to talk to or ask for advice."

Yoda tells me that although she is not trained as a therapist she feels qualified in the area and over time has gained the necessary experience by talking to so many people. People feel they can open up to her and even if 'they kill me' she will not expose their secrets.

Empathy oozes out of Yoda when she recalls the sadness some clients feel especially those who are unable to conceive children. They come to her to ask if they will ever have children and Yoda says "these are the saddest people I meet".

She tells me that business people are also some of her most common clients.

Most people, however, go to Yoda out of curiosity and when I asked her if she would go to someone herself, she said she had never met someone she could trust.

Apparently, there are 33 other fortune tellers in Malta, most of whom are foreign, but Yoda does not believe they are legitimate. She also explains the difference between mediums and fortune tellers with the former making connections with spirits.

This is not something she does, telling me fortune telling is about feeling and not someone telling you things. She actually tells me she would never speak to a medium herself as she does not understand why any dead relative would want to speak to you through someone else.

Yoda uses tarot cards, palm-reading and coffee grounds as aids but insists that fortune telling is not something you learn but something you feel. "These are just aids but I do not really need them. Having said that I am not going to stop you in the street and just tell you your future."

So does it mean you can just feel anything about anyone I ask her? Can you just tell by looking at me?

At this point, she asks me if I wanted to know my future and although I had thought about it prior to the interview, I did not really have an answer. I was not a believer but sometimes curiosity does get the better of you.

Suddenly the interview ended and the mood in the room changed. She proceeded to read my palm and asked me to choose some cards. Within a few minutes, I was told things about my past, present and future.

While I will not divulge what she told me, what I can say is that while remaining a firm believer in science, however she does it, Yoda is brilliant at her job.