“Can you tell me again why I’m here?” I searched the eyes of the white-bearded man perched next to me on the rotted log.
He sighed. “Child, I tell ya ev’ry day. Perhaps it’s me fate… I’ll tell ya again.” He shifted his weight and winced, rubbing his lower back. “Thirteen years plus thirteen days ago, I found ya sittin’ on this here log.
“How did I get here?”
“Gittin’ to it.”
He expelled a series of phlegmy coughs that made my insides shiver.
“You leant on this log. So I ask ya, ‘girlie, what’s yer name?’ Ya said nothing. Then, I seen the amulet around yer neck.” He lifted a polished arrowhead dangling from a leather cord. “It’s just like mine, ‘cept yers has ribbon, too.”
I felt for my necklace and rubbed the arrowhead between my thumb and index finger.
“I knew then, ya seen Nukpana.” He cleared his throat. “Fer centuries, she’s granted wishes, an cast spells. Yer grateful at first… til misery sets in.”
I furrowed my brow. “How did she find us?”
“We invite her. All it takes is tears an repeatin’ our heart’s desire three times.” He frowned. “Cain’t resist the evil lure of makin’ pain go away.”
“What was my wish?”
He stared at me for several seconds before turning his attention toward his hands. He rubbed his finger over his ridged thumbnail. “Ya wanted to forget.”
“Forget what?”
He shrugged. “Don’t know. Only one person knew; an’ she asked to forget.”
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