Page 21 of The Immortal's Trick
“Thank you, but no.” Ani’s smile promptly falls. “I’m actually here to speak with you. May we talk outside?”
Ruia and Sab erupt in teasing laughter and smacking noises behind me. I push the boys gently back into the house and close the door, leading Ani to the shaded bench near the edge of the dead olive grove.
He doesn’t sit right away. He’s pacing, fingers tangled in his dark hair.
“Ani,” I say gently, lowering myself onto the bench. “Please sit down.”
He sits beside me, his knee bouncing.
I place a hand on his thigh.
He stills.
“Ani?” I dip my head and force him to meet my eye. “What’s happened?”
“The crops are gone.”
The world stops.
Gone?
“What?” I choke out.
Shame clouds his face. “They’re gone, Eshe. All of them.”
I hear nothing. Not the birdsong. Not the wind. Not even my heartbeat. Only the echo of his words.
Gone.
Ani continues, but the words are muffled, like I’m submerged underwater.
“I arranged a buyer,” he says. “But when I went to the storeroom to inventory the crops, it was empty. The lock had been smashed.”
No.
No, no, no.
Our wheat. Our barley. Everything we stored, counted, and planned to live off.
Gone.
My body feels as if it’s sinking into the earth. I can’t breathe.
Ani leans forward. “Eshe—please say something.”
But there are no words—only terror.
I see the future now, sharp as shattered pottery. Father collapsing from a fever. Nebet, soul crushed, forced to accept Benipe’s offer.
No.
I won’t let that happen.
I’ll need to work. Nebet, too.
Ruia and Sab are too young, but perhaps they can take over caring for Father while Nebet and I find employment.
I can tutor. I’ll teach children to read and speak Greek.
