Page 70 of Nights Without Night
“A poultice.”
“A what?”
“A potion.”
“For what?” I’d asked, even though I already knew.
“For the curse. We found the cure.”
Isadoro and I had sat up, looking at each other.
“No, that’s not the right cure,” he had said. I had nodded.
“How do you know? You haven’t had it yet.”
“Doesn’t smell right.”
“Well, this is a special, very effective version. See, if you drink this you’ll never be able to be cursed together again,” my mom had said. Isadoro and I looked at each other in a panic.
“But we want-”
“That’s not how it-”
My mom had shushed us gently, sitting on the bed with us.
“No, this is good. See, this way, you don’thaveto stay with each other. You can go and see the world and when you’re together, you’ll know it’s because you want to and chose each other. You don’t want a dumb old curse making your decisions for you, right? Now you can choose each other,” she’d explained. We’d thought about it for a moment.
“I choose you, Pikachu!” Isadoro had exclaimed.
“I choose you, Charizard!” I’d shouted back before we dissolved into giggles.
“Okay, okay. Drink up,” my mom had said.
We’d drank the potion. The curse had been lifted. We could walk away from each other if we wanted. And we did—after fights, when we wanted space, when life had to be lived.
But we always came back.
**********
We shower together. It’s a first for us, and it’s amazingly cramped and awkward. We laugh until we give up on even pretending it’s sexy and get out, managing not to slip to our deaths in our tiny bathroom.
Back in my room, the curtains are drawn back, and the night is dark outside. A lamp glows over us as we lay together, our fingers tracing each other’s skin like it’s new terrain, when in reality it was mapped years ago. We face each other, two brackets containing a world of words within.
“I’m thinking of going back to school,” Isadoro says. It takes me a moment to untangle the words. When they hit me, I feel my face light up.
“Really?” I say, trying to contain my excitement. I don’t care if he goes to school or not. I care that he’s thinking ahead with enough hope to consider it.
“Yeah. I mean, not now, obviously. But, you know. When things get better.”
“What do you want to do?”
“I was thinking…veterinary technician,” he says, and I almost jolt up in the bed before managing to calm myself down at the last minute.
“Oh, my God. That’sperfectfor you, Isa! I mean obviously only if you want but that…I can totally, totally see you being great at that. Can you specialize in certain animals? You could specialize in lizards or something,” I say excitedly.
“Lizards? Why on earth would I want to specialize in lizards?”
“I dunno, ‘cause they’re cool. They’d give you an edge.”
