The Wood

Part 1, Entry 8

Day Nine, First Moon, Hunting Year Five Hundred and Four

I'm finally allowed to eat again. Michael brought me a bowl of soup and tossed stones on the bed with me until I fell asleep this afternoon. It's a fortune-telling game we like to play to imagine our futures. We don't really believe it, but that doesn't stop Mama from scolding us if she catches us playing. Only the aunts are allowed to look at the future, and only if it's to stop some kind of witchcraft from happening. Two summers ago, they read that Mason Dunkin would set the Village on fire during one of his episodes. His sister, Maya, had been busy bewitching him, they said. That's why he had those episodes.

But I know he had them before Maya was old enough to talk, and definitely before she was old enough to bewitch anyone. I saw him fall down right in the middle of a cornfield while I was carrying Maya. It looked like it hurt. Took a few minutes before he could talk again, but as soon as he could, he swore me to secrecy. I tried not to be afraid of him after that - he was just cursed the way Mama was cursed - but what if I caught it from him? Or what if Maya cursed me on accident? Could a little girl really curse someone? I started wearing a pouch full of herbs under my shirt when I saw them, just to be safe.

Mason had been worried that the aunts would come for him even then. He couldn't have caused the witching on account of him being a boy and all, but the curse was too deep, the aunts said, and sometimes a victim just can't come back from being cursed, so eventually -- after several aunts and uncles caught him in the throes of an episode -- both of them got banished. The uncles wanted to stone Maya, but the aunts said no -- a little mercy could go a long way, and just look how young she is. I heard Jacob Wilder mutter that it meant it would be easier to put an end to her curses now, while she's little, and after hearing that, I especially didn't want him to become an uncle. I doubt I'll get my wish.

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Thanks for reading! I'm queer and disabled, and it can be so hard to find books in mainstream literature with characters like me, so writing my own stories is how I deal with the struggle!