The Daughter of the Sea and the Sky by Litwack David

Author:Litwack, David [Litwack, David]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Evolved Publishing LLC
Published: 2014-05-03T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 21 – A Serpent in the Garden

Sleep had brought little comfort to Helena. Bizarre dreams intruded: a boat crashing on the cliffs, herself as the girl in the boat, Benjamin carrying her ashore.

Her anger spread daily like venom in her veins. Each morning, she’d drag herself out of bed and barely muster the strength to bring Kailani to her mother’s studio. Once there, the craft offered no antidote to the poison.

By the third day following the town meeting, she’d lost all patience. Their task that morning was to make earrings from teardrop crystal beads.

Her mother had cut four lengths of chain to support the beads that would hang, two from each earring. “And now, Helena, let’s see if you’ve learned enough to attach the chains to the beads. I’ll do the first one and you can do the next. Watch closely.”

Kailani hovered nearby, fascinated by the process, while Helena observed from behind. Her mother slipped a head pin into a bead, used a pair of chain-nosed pliers to bend the end into a loop, attached it to the chain, and bound it by coiling the pin around itself. It took no more than a few seconds.

She passed a kit—bead, chain, and pin—over to Helena. “Your turn.”

“You did that so well. Why don’t you finish the rest?”

“Can I try?” Kailani snatched the blue bead and held it up to the light.

“Not yet. Let Helena learn first and then we can both help you.”

Helena took bead and pin in hand. They seemed impossibly small. She needed three tries to thread the pin through the hole in the bead, and by that time, her vision had blurred and her fingers were shaking. Her mother handed her the pliers, but as she bent the pin it snapped in two, sending the free end skittering across the workbench.

“You squeezed too hard,” her mother said, passing another pin. “Try again, gentler this time.”

Helena cradled the pliers and twisted until the pin bent at ninety degrees. One more turn and it formed a loop. She attached the chain, but when she tried to wrap the pin around, it snapped again.

She dropped the half-formed earring and tossed the pliers away.

“Don’t worry,” her mother said. “It took me a while to learn as well.”

“You’ll run out of pins.”

“I have plenty.”

“What if I can’t do it?”

“You’ll learn. I’ll help you.”

“Of course you will. You’re so good at helping me.”

Her mother stiffened. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Are you two arguing?” Kailani said.

“We’re not arguing. Helena and I are just having a discussion.”

“How could we be arguing?” Helena said. “Miz Martha never gets upset. She’s found an inner peace.”

Martha sighed. “That’s uncalled for.”

Kailani pressed her hands to her ears. “Don’t argue. It makes my head hurt.”

“She doesn’t need to hear us carrying on like this.”

“But I want to carry on, Mother. I want to have it out once and for all.” She turned to Kailani. “Why don’t you go visit Jason? I’m sure he’d love to take a break.”

“May I play in the labyrinth instead?”

“That sounds like a lovely idea, dear,” Miz Martha said.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.