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“Are we supposed to all hold hands?” Liam asked with a smirk.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Eva rolled her eyes.
“I’m not the one who is ridiculous…” he mumbled, nodding at everything around them.
Mama came back with some sort of incense burning in her hand. Without saying another word, she walked straight to Isabella who stared at her yellowish face glowing from the candle light with curious wide eyes.
“So, you are the one who does not belong here,” Mama spoke like she was summoning a ghost on a Ouija board. Isabella glanced at Liam, who was studying Mama with an expression on his face that was hard to read.
“Well go on child, don’t be shy. Mama has seen and heard more than you could imagine.” She was now speaking like a shaman, carefully flapping the incense in a wide circle in front of Isabella. Liam nodded at Isabella as she thought of what to say.
“I guess you could say that.” She chose her words carefully. On the drive here Liam had advised her to give as little information to Mama as possible. He explained that people like Mama, who think they have specialgifts, would gather information provided to them and spit them back out in a form of some prophecy that sounded like they knew things nobody else could, but the truth was more or less just an educated guess.
“Do you have anything you brought with you on this journey?” Isabella pulled out her coin which glistened under the glow of the warm little fires around them.
“Yes, this coin.” She handed it over. Mama analyzed the cryptic item in her wrinkly old fingers, then clenched her fist tightly around it, closing her eyes shut. For a moment she just stood there, being carefully watched by three curious pairs of eyes. But then all of a sudden, she started singing, wiggling her bum in rhythm with the burning incense up and down, round and round, howling loudly like a Viking war cry ready for Valhalla as she danced in circles.
Liam was the first to find the voice to say something. “Are you kidding me…?” He rubbed his eyes in exhaustion, accompanied by a loudly howling Mama.
An overwhelming sadness rippled into Isabella's heart. The feeling of disappointment hit her like a train at full speed, grinding away every bit of hope she had left inside. This was supposed to help her back home, make sense of it all. Her time travel, her life. But instead she was sitting in a dusty old house, cut off from the rest of the world, listening to a human imitating animal cries.
Liam looked over and noticed her eyes gazing down to the ground, lost to the moment. He stood up, jaw clenched in anger as he tried to pull her away to protect her from all of this nonsense. “Let’s go, this was a waste of time!” Isabella gave Mama a final look of hope. Mama rolled her eyes back and screamed even louder, making noises that didn't sound like any animal known to mankind, accompanied by overly exaggerated movement.
“I agree, let us go…” Isabella closed her fingers around Liam’s hand. But just when Isabella was ready to get up and leave, Mama leaped toward her, falling onto her knees. She held up the coin in a tightly trembling clenched fist with both eyes pinched shut, and finally spoke in a language they all found familiar.
“I see a duchess whose treasure box is always empty,” she growled in a low voice. Isabella was now gripping onto Liam’s hand, pulling him back in place to stop him from leaving. It was utterly impossible!
“My mother…” Isabella whispered, barely able to hold her mouth in place.
“Green… I see an evergreen forest swallowing a black well…” Mama now suddenly and violently swung her head to the side. “No! Not forest… A woman… Red hair… She took your place… You took hers… Wishes made from melted hearts…” Isabella felt her chest tightening while her quivering hand grasped her wide open mouth. Even Liam couldn’t help but stand still in place like a statue. Eva, on the other hand, was watching the whole thing totally relaxed, even leaning an arm on the couch. As impossible as this seemed, Mama’sgiftwas as real as the sun that was hiding behind the clouds.
“How do I get back!” Isabella found her voice, stumbling a few steps toward Mama. “My brother, is he okay?” she added hastily. Mama fell forward, her whole body now shaking uncontrollably.
“Pain… I see pain. And suffering… I am losing them…”
“No!” Isabella wailed in despair, falling onto her knees right in front of Mama. “Is he in pain? How can I get back?” Mama trembled in silence. Isabella grabbed her shoulder, desperate to get the answer she needed. “How do I return?” she cried out, but Mama didn’t answer. Isabella now turned to Liam who was right next to her, her big wet eyes begging for help. At first, he didn’t seem to know how, but then kneeled down next to her.
“How does she get back home?” he almost begged into Mama’s ear, to no effect. All of sudden, Mama grabbed Isabella by the wrist. Her grip was so strong and powerful that it hurt. She raised her head up and looked right into Isabella’s eyes as if her burning gaze could see her every past, present, and future seeking the answers to her questions.
“Ghost…” she whispered, “the Ghost has the answers…” Those were Mama's last words before letting go of her and crumbling onto the floor, briefly unconscious. Liam held onto Mama, carefully trying to help her back up.
“Are you ok?” But Mama didn’t answer. Eva rushed over next to them.
“Liam, lay her onto her back.” He grabbed Mama under her arms to pull her flat onto the floor. Isabella grabbed a pillow from the couch and placed it under her head.
“She just needs a minute. Crossing dimensions is very tiring,” Eva said holding Mama’s hand. Liam fell backwards onto his butt, letting out the air that had been trapped since the entire thing started. “This is insane. All of this,” he said shaking his head.
“I know,” Eva put a hand on his shoulder. “There are many things that we don’t understand about this world, even though humanity has been claiming to do so for countless years,” she snickered.
“Indeed,” Isabella agreed nodding her head, then shaking it, then nodding once more.
Mama finally opened her eyes and turned her head toward Isabella. “The night you came here, do you remember the words of your heart?” she whispered out of breath. Isabella looked confused.
“I’m not certain I understand…” Mama gently placed her wrinkly old hand on hers.
“Close your eyes, child,” Mama softly instructed her.
“Your heart… Try to listen to your heart…” Isabella closed her eyes. A rush of memories came flooding into her mind and sinking into her thoughts, until one memory outpaced them all. The dreadful evening at the opera came back to her, all the way toward the hurtful things her mother said, and the coin that she threw at her.
