6. The Orphaned Gray
1523 Words
6
The Orphaned Gray
For a moment, panic flooded Jacob’s chest, but even in the pale moonlight he recognized Emilia. She wore a nightgown and walked very slowly.
Jacob rubbed his eyes to be sure he wasn’t hallucinating. But when he opened them, Emilia was still moving toward him. It looked like she was walking on stones trying to cross a creek without getting wet. A scrape punctuated each step as shingles pulled themselves off the roof and floated in the air for Emilia to walk on. As she passed, they would rasp themselves back into place, leaving no sign they had ever moved at all. Jacob shook his head in amazement.
“Kind of cool, huh?” Emilia stood on two shingles that hovered in the air, waiting for her to take the next step.
Jacob nodded, trying not to look shocked by her entrance.
“How are you?” Emilia stepped onto the roof and sat down beside him as though she hadn’t done anything abnormal. The two shingles she had been standing on scraped themselves back into their usual place.
“It’s been a little crazy.”
They sat in silence for a moment.
“Oh, here.” Jacob reached into his pocket and pulled out a little pouch. Just a bit of fabric and some string. He’d made it himself to hold the necklace Emilia had left with him. Jacob always carried the pouch with him. He had every day since she’d left. He took Emilia’s hand and slid the necklace from the pouch onto her palm.
Emilia’s eyes lit up. “You still have it.” She turned the sapphire pendant over in her hand before sliding the long chain around her neck. “Thank you, Jacob. Thank you for keeping it safe for me.”
Her smile stole his breath away.
“No problem.” He stared at his worn shoes. Silence overtook them again. A thousand things Jacob had wanted to say to her over the last four years raced through his mind. Things about his life and school and wanting to go to college. But now, with Emilia sitting right next to him, only one question came out. “Why did you leave it with me anyway?” Jacob asked, his voice sounding gruffer than he had meant it to.
“So you would know I was coming back,” Emilia said. “You knew this was the only thing I had from my mother. You knew I would never abandon it, just like I would never abandon you. Leaving you like that was a horrible thing to do, but I didn’t have a choice. I couldn’t explain. I wasn’t allowed to. I wasn’t even supposed to say goodbye. But I wanted you to know I was coming back, even if you didn’t know why I had to leave.”
She paused, but he couldn’t think of anything to say.
“Jacob, it was the best promise I could make.”
“Why does the necklace matter to you?” Jacob looked Emilia in the eye, searching for a truth he could actually understand. “Was it even your mother’s?”
“I think it was,” she said. “I really don’t know.”
“How can you not know?”
“I always told you my mother died when I was little, and Aunt Iz was my only relative,” Emilia said. “That’s not really the truth. Someone left me on the doorstep here with a note and this necklace when I was only a few days old.” Emilia looked down at the sapphire pendant. Delicate veins of silver held the deep blue teardrop stone in place. “Aunt Iz decided she might as well keep me since someone had left me specifically for her, especially since it seemed I would turn out to be a witch.
“There was no point in trying to find me a normal family if she would just have to come take me back in a few years anyway. I guess the necklace must have been my mother’s since she left it with me. At least I assume my mother left me. I don’t know who else could have.” Emilia spun the pendant between her fingers. The sapphire caught the moonlight and sparkled brighter than it had during the four years Jacob had kept it for her.
“Aunt Iz didn’t mind someone leaving a baby on her doorstep?” Jacob asked.
“Iz would never turn anyone away. Especially not a cute little baby.”
It was odd to Jacob that Emilia didn’t seem bothered by this. That it was all right her mother had abandoned her on someone’s doorstep.
“It’s okay.” Jacob took Emilia’s hand in his. His heart caught in his chest, and he quickly let go. “I get why you wouldn’t want to tell me your mom left you.”
“I’m sorry I never told you. It just seemed too strange. If you didn’t know my mother was a witch, it wouldn’t make sense for her to leave me with Aunt Iz.”
Jacob shook his head. “I know what it’s like to have family stuff you don’t want to talk about.”
“Jacob, it’s not like that. I would tell you anything. I trust you more than anyone else. Dead is easier than missing witch, that’s all.” She laughed a little.
Jacob couldn’t really understand why.
“Did you ever try to find her?” he asked.
“She could find me if she wanted to. I’m still here.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be,” Emilia said. “I got lucky. I got Iz.”
“Why were you allowed to stay?” He didn’t want to find a hole in her story. Didn’t want another reason to be angry.
“The note Aunt Iz found with me said Care for my Emilia. She will be one of us.”
“But if proof is necessary―”
“Exactly. Proof of ancestry wasn’t possible, so Aunt Iz called a Council meeting. She cared for me in the week before the gathering could take place. Of course, she just had to decorate a nursery, and she bought me a mobile with stars on it. Apparently, I didn’t like when the mobile stopped turning, because I started turning the stars myself with magic. Aunt Iz wrote to the Council of Elders and told them they didn’t need to bother with the meeting. And that was it. I had shown I was a witch, so it was completely within the rules for her to keep me.”
Emilia smiled at Jacob. Leaves and twigs from the roof rose above their heads and slowly started to circle around them like a solar system. All the objects rotated perfectly along their orbits with Emilia as their sun. “Still one of my favorite tricks.”
“How does it work?” He waved his hand at the swirling leaves.
“You’re not supposed to cheat.” Emilia hugged her knees closer to her chest. “And my helping you would definitely qualify as cheating.”
“But I don’t understand. Half-dead trees don’t just get better.” Jacob yanked a hand through his hair. “That’s not how things work.”
Emilia reached up and took his hand. She pulled a leaf from the air and placed it in his palm.
“Yes,” she said. “That is exactly how it works.” She smiled and the leaf turned a vibrant shade of green, as bright as any other in the garden. “That is how it works for me and for you, Jacob. You have to leave behind all of the rules you thought existed. Because this”―she looked up at her halo of leaves―“is real, and you can be a part of this world. I know you can. You belong here with us.”
Jacob wondered if us included Dexter. “Would you have come back for me if I couldn’t do magic? Would it have bothered you to never see me again?”
“Of course.” Tears glistened in the corners of her eyes. “Of course I would have come back for you. I had to wait. There are rules―”
“Who cares about the rules?” Jacob snapped, anger creeping back into his voice. “You were my best friend. I needed you, and you weren’t there.”
“I know.” Tears streamed freely down her face. “I’ve tried a million times to think of another way, but the Council would never allow it. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry I left you all alone.”
“I always wondered why Iz didn’t take me. I mean, if your mother died and she took you. But she never offered to take me. She fed me, bought me shoes, took me to the doctor, but never wanted me to live with you.”
“I asked her.” Emilia stared out over the trees. “I wanted her to take you, too. You would have been happy with us. But she said no. It wouldn’t have been safe if you lived with us. Eventually, you would have figured out we were witches, and then we would all have been in trouble. So I started wishing for you to be a wizard. Then I finally got my wish, and we had to leave you behind completely.”
Jacob brushed her tears away with his thumb. It didn’t matter how much he hurt. He never wanted to see Emilia cry. “But you came back,” he said. “I’m here now, and you won’t have to leave me behind again.”
“I told them I had to come and get you myself.” Emilia turned away from Jacob and looked back out into the night. “Because if I didn’t, you would never have forgiven me.”
Jacob lay back on the roof and gazed at the stars as Emilia’s solar system circled around them.
- Writer
