Change in Heart ▪ Enoch O'Connor

I.

"Mama?"

"Yes?"

"Why don't I have anybody to play with?" The bright blue-eyed girl asked her mother one day as they sat reading.

"Ashnar, my dearest," Mother said, trying to find a way to explain the secret she had kept from her 10 year old daughter. She knew Ashnar had felt alone, and she felt it was just the best time to tell Ashnar a story of her own not - so - lonely days.

"Whenever I was a little girl, about your age, I left my home in England. I wanted to find something new, or something better. Somewhere I would belong, and wouldn't be seen as peculiar. So I went exploring, looking for a place with a new beginning. After some time, I found this place called Cairnholm."

"That's here!" Ashnar exclaimed excitedly, moving to her knees on the bouncy sofa.

"Yes Ashnar, but please don't interrupt," Mother cleared her throat and started again, smiling this time.

"After I came across this island, I went to find a home. Because I knew this little town was right for me. I passed a few pubs and ranches, I even had to swim through a sticky, slushy bog on my quest to wherever it would lead. But soon, I found an oddly shaped rock cave. This was called a cairn. The little, dark town had become warm and sunny on the other side of the cave. I walked and walked, through green grass and beautiful flowers to find somewhere, or someone to take me in. I came to a big, beautiful house near a garden and a close beach."

 Mother let out a dreamy sigh, her brown eyes twinkling, and grabbed Ashnar's hand.

"I found that there was a woman living there. Her name was Miss Peregrine, and she was something called a ymbryne."

"What is a yam-brain Mama?" Ashnar asked out of pure curiosity.

Mother let out a chuckle. "Ymbryne, not yam brain. A ymbryne is a lady could transform into a bird, in this case a Peregrine falcon. Her job was to make something called a loop, where she could reset a day and people could live in it. That day was September 3rd, 1940. It was her peculiarity as they call it. Being a ymbryne also meant she cared for peculiar children. She brought me in and that was my home with others who didn't judge me for having something odd with me. T'was where I knew I belonged," Mother was beaming by now, as she recollected all the wonderful memories she had from the childrens home.

"What do you mean peculiar children, Mama?" Ashnar asked, she was intrigued by her mother's story and listened intently.

 "Well, they were quite a few children with talents no normal person could possess. There was a girl who could lift the heaviest of objects, and her older brother could too. A little girl who had a mouth on the back of her head under her curls, a boy who could project his dreams of which predicted the future, a boy who was entirely invisible, a girl that could create a flame from her hands without even burning herself, a small girl who was lighter than air, and a girl that made nature with her own hands. And a boy I fancied at one point, who could bring the dead to life, just using his own hands and an animal's heart."

Ashnar sat, thinking of these people that she couldn't distinguish whether they were real or a figment of her mother's imagination.

"Was there only them?" asked Ashnar, head tilted to the side.

"Yes, but I couldn't forget your brother, Ashnar," Mother replied with a wide smile.